


apples to apples

by hovercraft



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26133979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hovercraft/pseuds/hovercraft
Summary: A loyal knight to his king, or maybe just a friend from his childhood who could never let go of a certain love he grew up with. He'll tell him, no matter what.(Pokemon AU)
Relationships: Gilgamesh | Archer/Arthur Pendragon | Saber
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	apples to apples

**Author's Note:**

  * For [petunianightsky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/petunianightsky/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY STARRY THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE NICE COMMENTS AND SUPPORT AND ;_;
> 
> I know half of this I already wrote, but I decided to flesh it out for your birthday. Have a good one!!

Arthur had always considered himself Gilgamesh’s knight, ever since they played the role as kids.

Now, as leader of the Elite Four and second to Gil’s status as Champion, he was really starting to feel the title.

He was well respected—adored, even—by his peers. More than once had Arthur been speaking to a particularly eager interviewer or a fangirl who wanted his autograph when Gilgamesh interrupted with his authority and dispersed anyone who happened to be talking to him. He said it was because the sight annoyed him, that Arthur shouldn’t lower himself to speak to these peons, but some part of Arthur always hoped it was a little bit of jealousy.

After all, in the Chaldea region, it was hardly a secret to everyone that Arthur was pretty in love with him. Gym leaders would even speak to them as if they were already together, and it went right over Gilgamesh’s head, much to Arthur’s embarrassment. If he wanted anyone to find out, it would have to be from himself and no other.

Chaldea’s region was fiercely competitive. No one played down their strengths for the sake of a match—getting through the gym challenge was ruthless. Very few people made it to the Elite Four and Arthur made sure none of them made it to Gilgamesh. They were simply at the peak of their game—royalty among trainers. Plus, Gilgamesh would have never been able to tolerate it if someone beat Arthur in a match that wasn’t him, so Arthur took it pretty seriously.

That’s what made him his “knight”—nothing ever reached the “king” to threaten his position.

Gilgamesh might have been egotistical, arrogant, and cruel, but he was good at his job and being and remaining Champion was his dream. Seeing that dream grow as they grew up, when Gilgamesh beat the last Champion, Solomon, into retirement—Arthur couldn’t help but want to protect it. He was there for its making, like a legend in progress, and he committed himself to the task one hundred percent.

When they were kids, starting out with nothing more than a Swablu and a Meowth, they never imagined they would get this far. Well, _Arthur_ didn’t. Gilgamesh never let anything sway himself from his goal and conquered exactly what he wanted to.

Even when Arthur lost to him, Gil was radiant. He inspired him to be stronger, better. An equal, even if a knight could never hope to be.

“ _Arthur_ ,” He’d say it so smugly, like their chit-chat was always a back and forth game. “Back from Kalos already? It’s been lonely up in the tower.”

“I met some wonderful people,” Arthur responded calmly. “But I couldn’t bear to be away from too long.”

“Wonderful people, huh…” Please, Arthur thought, let that be jealousy in his voice, but Gilgamesh just continued. “Capture anything rare?”

“Come on. You know my team is solid right now and I can’t bear to catch anything I can’t give the time to raising.”

“You were always such a bleeding heart, not even bothering to use boxes,” Gilgamesh seemed to brush off Arthur and continue on his own tangent, as he was prone to do. “No wonder you’ll never reach me.”

“I’ve given up on trying.”

Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow, as if he was displeased with that answer.

“Just kidding,” Arthur said quickly. “I just like the view from where I’m at.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Everyone around them knew what that was supposed to mean.

“… never mind.”

\--

“You’ll never get stronger than me if you don’t train, Arthur.”

That derisive voice could come from no one else but the regional champion, dressed in that fur-lined white coat. Arthur sighed, with a smile. His childhood friend was still competitive, and Arthur was primarily the reason the elite four could not be beaten so easily. He had to train consistently to keep up with his friend, who would scorn him if they ever had a match that didn’t come down to their final pokemon, down to their weakest points.

If he wanted to, Arthur supposed, he could really put his nose to the grindstone and beat Gil and gain his title, but he didn’t particularly want to ascend the throne. There was an energy to their rivalry, sure, but Gil had the upper hand almost every time. There was no better person to be champion. Arthur had once held the title for five minutes before Gilgamesh healed up and beat him in a rematch, and he’s never let him forget it since.

“Maybe I like you as Champion,” Arthur answered honestly, knowing Gilgamesh would take it facetiously.

“Hah! You’ve just gotten used to it. A champion is a symbol of the entire region. You wouldn’t be wrong in assuming I’m best fit for the role. Still, don’t _bore_ me, Arthur.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Arthur said, sounding a little distracted.

“Hm?” Gilgamesh tucked his hands into his coat pockets and leaned over Arthur. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing…”

“Fool, you can’t hide anything from me. You’ve got that look on your face I’ve known since we were kids.”

“You wouldn’t be able to decipher it in a million years. You may be smart enough to stay champion, but you’re as thick as a brick wall sometimes.”

Gilgamesh looked ruffled, scrunching his nose. “Maybe you’re just not direct enough. Get to the point.”

“If everyone but you knows what’s on my mind, I doubt it’s that.”

Now _that_ was enough to get under Gilgamesh’s skin. He glowered at the other man, though his anger didn’t quite reach all the way through. It was more of a superficial annoyance, the kind he was used to feeling 24-7. “What’s this secret the other gym leaders and trainers know that I don’t?”

“…”

“Out with it, Arthur! You can’t bring it up and not tell me!”

Arthur smiled.

“If you beat me tomorrow at the match in Galar, I’ll tell you.”

Finally! A reason to fight Arthur with his entire heart in it, instead of just being content to win every time. “If _you’re_ challenging _me_ , it must be something good.”

“I don’t know. It’s good depending on your perspective.” Arthur didn’t let his nervousness show even slightly. He looked as cool as one could be.

“Hmmm…”

The match in Galar was an international one, where Elite Fours and Champions would battle their ranks to the very top. Arthur was basically promising Gilgamesh to meet him at the top of the bracket—and in their region, they didn’t keep low-level pokemon to battle children with and let themselves be won over sometimes. In the Chaldea region, everyone fought with everything they had. It was kind of looked down upon by other regions, but it was how Gilgamesh stayed on top.

“You will tell me, then. It’s just a matter of winning.”

“Of course-- but If I win, I’ll keep it a secret for the rest of my life.”

“Ridiculous. If you win, I’ll just challenge you over and over until you tell me.”

“No, this time… it’s a promise,” Arthur said dangerously. He knew getting Gilgamesh fired up was the only way to make this interesting.

“Hah! Hahaha! Fine, I’ll crush you and you’ll have to pour your heart out to me. I hope it’s nothing embarrassing… _Arthur_.”

He patted Arthur’s cheek before turning and walking away. They’d have to board the ship to Galar soon, and Arthur looked at his Altaria named Altria with some uncertainty.

“Do you think he’ll take it well?” He rubbed his forehead, pushing his bangs backward.

The Altaria made a soft chirping noise.

“Yeah… maybe.”

\--

Gilgamesh, naturally, had smashed through the competition.

Even Galar’s champion, who was well respected, had been crushed completely underfoot of his well-balanced team. Every weakness accounted for; every loophole exploited. The Champion of Chaldea was ruthless in every single way.

Arthur didn’t have that luxury—but he won by numbers alone. His levels were astoundingly high so that when he was at a disadvantage, he still won by sheer force. He was certainly putting Galar’s best to shame, and he felt a little bad about it—but he still had to make it to the top. He made a promise. He’d only used five pokemon so far and was healing and maintaining them as time went on. The sixth one he’d kept a mystery.

The announcer called out their names at the final round and they met on the pitch.

“Ready to lose?” Gilgamesh spoke triumphantly into the microphone pinned to his collar.

“You’re not prepared to win,” Arthur said mysteriously, but it still got the crowd hyped. A dragon leader and a champion—it reminded them of their own. It was hard not to get excited.

The fight would rage on for countless turns, each fighting with their all. They used every trick in the book together to keep fighting, but Gilgamesh had a plan to target Arthur’s strongest pokemon first so that they’d be difficult to revive and maintain during the fight. Once he was down to his weakest pokemon and essentially using them as a buffer to heal his stronger ones, he knew he had Arthur cornered.

It was finally down to Arthur’s last pokemon. The one he’d kept a secret the entire time—when Gilgamesh expected Altaria to fly out, it was instead…

An Applin.

A level 1 Applin.

Gilgamesh looked shocked. Had he… just thrown the match over a mistake? Did he pick up the wrong pokeball? He started laughing scornfully, mocking him for the mistake, when he realized the crowd sounded charmed. A soft ‘aww’ was audible through the thrumming music. What was up with them? Gilgamesh wasn’t slow on the uptake, he quickly realized two things; that this was deliberate, and it meant something to the crowd. Arthur just stood there, hand to his chest.

“Do you accept this?”

“Wh… what?”

He repeated himself. “Do you accept this?”

“Your loss? Your—”

Then, he realized something. Applins were dragon-type pokemon with a weird bit of lore attached to them. If you exchanged one with someone, it meant you’d be…

Oh my god.

Gilgamesh stood there, dumbfounded, hit by every single hint Arthur had ever given him about his feelings like a ton of bricks all at once. Arthur stood there, patiently, waiting for an answer.

“If you don’t accept, just faint it and I’ll forget everything about today. You’ll win.”

Gilgamesh didn’t speak, because he knew it’d come off as less than kingly if he did. He crossed his arms, lips firmly pursed, before he finally spoke.

“You—mongrel!”

Arthur smiled slightly.

The truth was, Gilgamesh wanted to call him out on doing this less than privately, but he appreciated these big gestures even more than he’d like to admit. It was fitting for a king like himself to be told in such a big way… with so many people watching… it made him want to keep his head low in his dark, gold-accented trench coat and laugh gloatingly all the same.

“Of course, I don’t expect anything else from a mongrel like you… challenging me for your feelings, and doing it like this—I… damn you, it’s…”

He was truly caught off guard. Arthur was still staring at him, gently, ready to accept whatever answer Gilgamesh gave him. He loved him too much to let anything go sour between them.

Gilgamesh walked forward and picked the Applin off the stadium ground, turning it around in his palms, observing it with a quiet judgment. “I suppose… I can raise this thing to become powerful and worthy of the intent given behind it.”

“So you won’t faint it?”

“I won’t.”

“And it’s too weak to faint your pokemon, so…”

The referee looked between them. “A draw?”

“A draw.”

Somehow, the crowd was even louder than it would have been if one of them had won or lost, applause drowned out the rest of the stadium as Gilgamesh stood close to Arthur with the apple-like thing still in his hands, letting every hint Arthur had ever given him shock him into even more realization. How could he be so blind to the one person he’d…

Perhaps he’d channeled his feelings into his rivalry and that’s why he had become so blind to it. Arthur was busy being congratulated by various other trainers from different regions out on the pitch, until Gilgamesh grabbed his arm possessively.

“We have much to discuss. If you’ll excuse us?”

Gilgamesh practically dragged him back to the locker rooms.

\--

“I’m sorry, I know it was a bit much, but—”

Gilgamesh wasn’t interested in hearing an apology, and he was still a bit confused as to how a close friend could hide something so important from him over the entirety of their lives. Everyone knew? Then he must look like a fool—and Arthur was the one guilty for making him look that way by not telling him, so…!

“Hmph! Were you just not brave enough to say anything, or just waiting for the right moment to put me on the spot? Hm?”

Arthur knew Gil, knew that this abrasiveness was his way of processing what had just happened.

“Some part of me always hoped you’d felt the same way and say so, I guess.”

“… and so, you’ve only suffered in the process. I should have known the moment you started feeling that way about me.”

“But you enjoyed our rivalry so much, that… I felt like if I took it away from you, I would be ruining what we have.”

“… you really are a fool.”

Arthur lowered his head slightly, but Gilgamesh caught him by the chin.

“Weren’t you always my knight?”

Arthur was taken by surprise—he’d thought Gilgamesh had long forgotten that metaphor for their lives. He sighed.

“Yeah, and knights and _kings_ don’t—”

He was surprised to be caught in a kiss. After years of ridiculous feelings built up, it felt like a dam breaking loose as Arthur cupped the back of his neck, fingers running through the cropping of blond hair as Gilgamesh’s arms settled around his waist. He braced for that being it, that Gilgamesh wanted to give him a kiss before telling him no, he could _sense_ it coming—

“The age of knights and kings is dead. Let whatever they want to do in the modern era, do what they want.”

“I never asked properly…”

“You’ve been my rival only to make me happy,” Gilgamesh said, having realized it only moments ago. “To ensure we stay at the top, to ensure the challenge is always that, a challenge— it’s still very foolish of you, but I doubt I would have enjoyed my life nearly as much if you hadn’t always been looking out for me. Allow me to grace you by returning the favor, selflessly.”

He bumped his forehead against Arthur’s. To have someone who watched over you for so long, who trained to be worthy of you, who just wanted to make sure you stayed on top and stayed happy, admit they loved you… it was a lot to take in, but Gilgamesh had always loved Arthur anyway. It was just _selfishly_ so, hidden in little actions and different ways than Arthur nobly professed.

“Look at you. An idiot who showed his love not by saying it, but by trying to weave it into every aspect of my life.” Despite saying this, Gilgamesh was grinning. “I’ll be braver than you like I always am and tell you right off the bat— you’re worthy of my love.”

Arthur blinked, and of course, Gilgamesh would say it in that Gilgamesh-way of saying it… He just pulled him into a hug. He wasn’t sure what he was trying to thank him for—for not rejecting him now that they were off the pitch, or for always being there to inspire him to do better. For motivating him to create the life they had now.

Gilgamesh only broke the hug to pay attention to the Applin Arthur had given him. It was nervous, having been out on the pitch right after having hatched, and Gilgamesh chided Arthur for scaring it so thoroughly.

“Sentiment or not, this is now one of my beloved treasures. I’ll have to treat it like such.”

By now, word of how this match went down was probably going viral on the news. He offered Gilgamesh his hand.

“There’s going to be a lot of press out there.” He warned.

“Let them take pictures so long as they don’t touch you. You belong to _me_ , now.”

Never had those words felt so good.


End file.
